The purpose of the present article is to highlight the important role zinc and selenium play in various critical illnesses in children. There is also need to study various benefits and rationale for supplementation with these trace elements as a potential pharmacotherapeutic strategy in critically ill children and stimulating further research in this field. Normal homeostasis of zinc and selenium is required for proper functioning of immune system, adequate antioxidant activity, glucose homeostasis, and wound healing. In addition, zinc acts as a cofactor for many enzymes, transcription factors, and replication factors. In critically ill children, zinc and selenium levels are found to be low and few studies suggested that supplementation with zinc may be associated with clinical improvement in this group of patients. However, the evidence to recommend the routine use of zinc and selenium supplementation in the critically ill children is inadequate. Further studies are needed to uncover the exact mechanisms for low levels of zinc and selenium; therapeutic role of zinc and selenium supplementation; and optimal dose that has a maximal beneficial clinical effect on underlying inflammatory, immunologic, and various metabolic processes in critically ill children.

Survey based study was carried out including 43 hospitals (large, medium-sized and small) of the city. A questionnaire was send to all the hospitals, only 53.5% of the hospitals responded. After analyzing the received data it can be concluded that 65% of the hospitals in Karachi have P & T committee out of which only few are working in a well defined manner while others are merely meant for approving the drugs for the pharmacy and any other functions are not performed, while in the remaining hospitals either there is no such committee as P&T but if there is such committee, then its major task is not fulfilled. Hence it can be concluded that the hospitals in Karachi lacks the pharmacy and therapeutic committee. Most of the large and few medium sized hospitals have such recommending body and therefore it helps the institution in selecting cost-effective and safe medicines and also in improving the implementation and evaluation strategies concerned with the use of medicine.

Bi-layer tablet is suitable for sequential release of two drugs in combination and also for single drug as immediate dose and maintenance dose. Losartan Potassium is an anti hypertensive drug acts by antagonizing Angiotensine II receptors. The aim of present study is to prepare bilayer tablets of Losartan Potassium with an immediate release and a sustained release layer. The immediate release layer was prepared using super disintegrant sodium starch glycolate and sustained release layer is formulated with different polymers such as xanthum gum, gum karaya and hydroxy propyl methyl cellulose K4M, individually in different concentrations and in combinations. The preformulation studies of formulations showed good flow properties and feasibility for direct compression. The compressed bilayered tablets were evaluated for hardness, friability, weight variation, drug content uniformity and in vitro drug release. Formulation contained combination of xanthum gum and gum karaya was optimized which showed prolonged release of Losartan Potassium for about 24 hrs. No significant change either in physical appearance, drug content or in dissolution pattern was observed after storing at 40°C/75% relative humidity (RH) for 1 month in respect of the optimized formulation. FTIR studies revealed no chemical interaction between drug and adjuvant as well as adjuvant and adjuvant which indicates the stability of drug in tablets.

The antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, membrane stabilizing and anti-atherothrombosis activities of crude ethanol extract of leaves of Leea macrophylla Roxb. have been investigated. In antimicrobial assay by disc diffusion method, the extract showed mild to moderate antimicrobial activity with zone of inhibition ranging from 9-12 mm and 16-31 mm for test bacteria and fungi, respectively where the growth of Aspergillus niger, Blastomyces dermatidis, Candida albicans, Pityrosporum ovale, Trichophyton sp. Microsporum sp. and Cryptococcus neoformans were strongly inhibited. The extract produced inhibition of protein denaturation and haemolysis by 47.4% and 57.63% in the in vitro anti-inflammatory and membrane stabilization tests, respectively. On the other hand, the crude extract exhibited 20.61% clot lysis compared to the standard streptokinase (SK) (81.53%) in the anti-atherothrombosis activity studies. Preliminary phytochemical screenings with the crude extract revealed the presence of alkaloids, glycosides, tannins, flavonoids, reducing sugars and gums.

Formulation and evaluation of bilayer floating tablets of amlodipine besylate and metoprolol succinate

p. 328-339

M. Sravanthi*, Dr. K. Abbulu and Aastha Saxena

In the present study an attempt was made to prepare bilayer floating tablets of Amlodipine Besylate and Metoprolol Succinate floating sustained release layer, which remains in stomach for prolonged period of time in a view to maximize bioavailability of drug, by using various concentrations of polymers, fifteen formulations of Metoprolol having polymers at different concentration levels were prepared of which three formulations F8, F10, F13 showed excellent drug release profiles so these formulations were selected for the preparation of bilayer floating tablets. Amlodipine Besylate layer (immediate release) A1 was prepared by using sodium starch glycolate as super disintegrant, which showed excellent drug release so the composition of immediate release layer is kept constant in all formulations. Best formulations from both the layers were selected and formulated as bilayer tablets i.e (A1+F8), (A1+F10), (A1+F13) and these formulations showed excellent post compression & invitro drug release, hence all the three formulations were selected as optimized formulations.

stands as 6th Rank of leading causes of death in children and adolescent. The objective of the study were assess to the effectiveness of structured teaching programme on prevention of ‘Road Traffic Accidents’ among adolescents (13-17 years).Materials and Methods: quasi experimental one group pre and post-test design was used. The Sample for study was n=150 adolescent are students studying in VIII TO XI standard selected by using simple random sampling technique. The pre-test was introduced to assess the knowledge among the group of samples in view with pretest result STP was formulated and introduced to the samples after that the post-test was conducted and the result were evaluated through structured questionnaire and attitude scale. The data was analyzed using Wilcoxon signed rank test.Results:The average pretest knowledge and attitude score among adolescent’s students found to be 34.753, 17.540 respectively. After the STP; the mean posttest knowledge and attitude score was 49.033, 25.520 respectively. Thus the difference in level of the knowledge and attitude was confirmed by the obtained Wilcoxon signed rank test value (5.767), (6.158) respectively. This was statistically significant (P<0.001). Conclusion:The study concluded that the structured teaching program was effective in improving knowledge and attitude of adolescents on prevention of road traffic accidents.